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More battles on the Tube

Submitted by AWL on 12 February, 2013 - 12:07

Tube union RMT has reacted angrily to management’s attempt to use private security workers instead of trained station staff to perform detrainment checks.

Drivers on the Bakerloo Line have been conducting industrial action that has involved drivers performing manual checks before taking trains into sidings or depots. The drivers say the job should be done by station staff, but reductions in staffing levels have led to corners being cut.

The RMT called the use of private security personnel “an act of desperation from London Underground”. The union said: This proposal also shows that LU have no regard for passenger safety in this matter. “The proposed use of private security guards does nothing to stop overcarries and would mean that we would still have thousands of overcarries a year. It is our action on the line by physically checking trains that has resulted in zero overcarries.”

RMT will also ballot its driver members on the Jubilee Line for industrial action over management attempts to remove telephone wiring, essential for emergency contact if drivers’ radios fail, from a stretch of tunnel between Baker Street and Bond Street for up to four years while tunnel refurbishments take place. If the ballot returns a vote in favour, drivers could refuse to take passengers through the tunnel, meaning they would have to exit at Baker Street and walk to Bond Street above ground.

RMT said that it understood drivers-only union ASLEF was planning to take “similar action”.